Curse at the Wind
by Miss.Meiks
Summary: Why is it that the ones you love the most, always seem to hurt you the worst?


_**A/N:**__ Firstly, I know that someone already beat me to the punch with this idea. I saw the fic this morning before class but I'd already typed out most of this and rather liked it too much to forget it._

_Secondly, apologies to anyone who might have me on author watch for my _Wicked_ stories. I've been lurking around the Glee fics lately and felt the need to contribute a bit._

_That being said, I hope you all enjoy this! : D_

_The title is from the song Rachel signs at the end of this "The Only Exception" by Paramore._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, nor am I making any sort of profit off of this_.

_Spoilers: Britney / Brittany_

-x-

It's funny how life never seems to go as one plans. Sometimes it seems like you can't even manage to trace the path that led you to where you stand. Quinn sucked in a breath around her teeth, _she_ certainly couldn't figure out how she'd landed in this position. Well, if she tried hard enough she could probably at least discern a vague and stumbling sort of path.

The blonde this particular sequence of events probably started from sometime during the whirlwind of emotions stirred by her pregnancy. It at to have started then because before that she wouldn't have even considered pausing when her name was called by the diva that now stood before her. An exact date as to when things started to change would be impossible to pinpoint. An exact reason would be even more impossible.

The fact stood, however, that the shorter girl's voice had become less grating, her rambling less annoying, her clothes . . . well they were still atrocious. Proof that some things never change.

Quinn had attributed this to pregnancy hormones. Maybe she was less bothered by Rachel's antics because her body was subconsciously preparing her for parenthood, even if she wasn't keeping the baby. That's what she told herself anyway.

Eventually that tolerance melted into what could almost be called a fondness for the brunette's eccentricities. In fact, though she'd never admit it, she derived a sort of sick pleasure when those eccentricities included shoot down Finn. She felt kind of bad about it really, I mean she'd already torn the boy's heart to shreds she shouldn't be happy to see him further humiliated, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to feel bad for him either. Of course it was later revealed that those outbursts were only spawned from Jesse St. Jackass. The boy had made Quinn's blood boil when she first met him, and it boiled even more now after everything he'd done.

Somewhere in the back of her mind Quinn realized that her anger was a little misplaced. She still had a cause to be mad at him, for sure. But she should have been made over him coming near to ruining Glee. Her rage wasn't cause by what he had done to the club as a whole, only by what he had done to one person in particular. She didn't do that. HBIC, Captain of the Cheerios Quinn Fabray just didn't care for individuals, unless that individual was herself. Even if she did care for a single person, that person sure as hell wasn't Rachel Berry. But maybe knocked-down-a-few-pegs, pregnant Quinn Fabray did.

The real kicker was when she was at the hospital though. After Regionals. Through a haze of contraction pains and screaming at Puck, she was by far angrier that Rachel had chosen to stay behind rather than join her at the hospital. Not just her, but everyone else in the club that had come for moral support. Even Mister Schuester was there, he if anyone should have been the one to remain behind for competition's sake.

When it was all over, and the baby was set in her arms, Quinn couldn't help but smile at the little girl. Part of her wanted so badly to admit to herself that she loved that child, and would keep her safe forever. She couldn't do that though, she'd never be able to raise a child, certainly not at her age and _certainly_ not with Puck. So instead the blonde tried to distract that sort of thought by thinking of other things, and the back of her mind surprised her with an entirely different confession. It admitted to her that she had it bad for one Rachel Berry. The thought made her shudder even now.

"Quinn, have you even been listening to me?"

The blonde shook her head from her reverie and attempted to draw her focus back from whatever far-off land her eyes had been focused on. With a dull blink she looked down at the brunette and sniffed drily.

"No, not really," it was the truth, and Quinn tried to make it sound as snide as possible. In her mind, she failed, but Rachel seemed to buy it.

"Don't get all snippy with me Quinn Fabray; you're not the one who just spent five minutes explaining her grand plan only to be ignored! Now if you're quite finished daydreaming-"

"You've been talking for five minutes? No wonder I phased out," the newly reinstated Cheerio interjected, her old personality shining through again. "Spark note it Berry, I'm busy I don't have time for the Gettysburg Address."

Rachel swallowed lightly, her face worrying for the briefest of moments, losing her usual confidence. She was back like nothing had happened when she spoke, "Firstly I am thoroughly impressed by your historical joke Quinn," the mentioned girl glowered in warning at this point and Rachel jumped a bit before continuing, "I need your help."

"And I would help you why?" Quinn raised a hand to inspect her nails disinterestedly. To be honest she would be more than happy to help the brunette. For reasons she was clearly not ready to share, but she had to keep up appearances.

"Well," Rachel took a deep breath, suddenly finding the lockers on the other side of the hall quite interesting, "I know we've never really been the friendliest of acquaintances, but I was rather hoping we were on kind enough grounds now that I might be able to ask you for help. You're the only one who could do this for me and it's rather important you see."

Quinn's face scrunched at this information before reaching before the diva's face and snapping impatiently to get her attention back. It wasn't like the brunette to trail off like that, and the cheerio tried her best to deny the fact that it bothered her that the other girl was so clearly upset over something.

"I need you to talk to Finn," Rachel almost barked in response after the shock of having Quinn snap in her face. "That is . . . find that having Finn being back in football leads to a myriad of unnecessary stress of my part. It might be irrational, but it is certainly not unfounded that he is prone to straying to other women. I'm well aware that he's merely another slave to the system and that having a popular date would raise his popularity as well but-"

"No way Berry."

"But Quinn . . . _please_ Quinn," the diva's voice broke as she said it.

As Rachel's voice broke, so did a little piece of Quinn's heart. She was loath to admit it but seeing the brunette so absolutely pitiful was almost physically painful for her to see. Straightening up a little bit she ground her teeth at what she was about to say.

"Fine, but you owe me _big time_ Berry."

"Thank you! Oh Quinn thank you, thank you. . ." the brunette's voice bubbled off into an incoherent stream of appreciation, but that wasn't important right now.

What was important was that in her joy the brunette had flung her arms around the taller girl in a great hug. Quinn was shocked for a moment before allowing herself the shortest second of pleasure at the show of gratitude. Then she cleared her throat and wrestled herself backwards and out of the hug.

"Alright that's enough of that, what do I have to do now?" the blonde half growled, taking a step backwards from the still overly pleased diva.

"Excellent! Now if you could just memorize this script and present it to Finn the next chance you get."

Quinn rolled her eyes as the other girl produced what appeared to be a rather long monologue from her back and handed it over. With an exasperated sigh the blonde took the page and stalked off towards her next class.

-x-

The blonde had spent her summer staying away from any occasion that included New Direction's star child. She had enough on her plate already. She was moving back in with her mother, after having built up a tentative relationship over the remaining weeks of school after Regionals, she was still recovering from her pregnancy. She spent a lot of time mindlessly exercising. Somewhere she hoped that the terrifying thought that had seeped into her mind that night would vanish with the pregnancy hormones. For a short while, she was almost convinced they had. But that first day back, seeing Rachel again, her mind went right back to how it had been three months prior. So naturally even though she'd put up a good show of not wanting to even see the brunette, let alone help her, she was secretly glad to have an almost civil conversation.

Despite wanting to give Rachel a hand, Quinn wrinkled her nose at what she was about to do. Finn was standing at his locker and the blonde spied the girl who put her up to this a little further down the hall peering from behind a door. How was the jock thick enough to miss that? With a deep breath Quinn walked up to the boy, whom was mumbling something about forgetting he was taking US History. She took back her surprise at him not having noticed the diva; it was way more impressive for him to not realize he had an entire class.

"Congrats Finn," the blonde started off, throwing him a plastic smile. She already had what she was going to say planned out. And it decidedly was not what the brunette had written out, that was way too long-winded and very obviously from the mind of Rachel Berry. No the Cheerio had shortened the lines, made them more normal. Not that there was anything normal about asking out the boy she'd already broken once.

"Look I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't have feelings for you," Finn said, moving to close his locker, "I'll always will."

Quinn's face fell a tiny bit at the response; she hadn't even realized she'd already finished her bit. Her expression continued to deflate as he spoke. He was turning her down even though he still felt something for her. She couldn't really blame him. What stung more, however, wasn't the rejection, but the greater meaning behind it. He chose Rachel; he had no intentions of leaving her or straying from her. Which was great, in a way. At least he was faithful right? The news would make Rachel happy. The Head Cheerio nodded glumly as Finn walked away. She didn't bother to hide her crest-fallen appearance; after all it worked just as well towards her act.

Once the jock had left Quinn moved in the opposite direction down the hall. She paused briefly beside Rachel. "I said what you wanted me to, he shot me down. So congrats . . . looks like he really loves you," the blonde rolled her eyes as she moved on down the hall. This had to be one of the worst days ever, possibly even worse than the whole pregnant and getting slushied stint in her life.

-x-

Okay _now_ this was officially the worst day ever. Rachel had said something about performing a song, which was fine. That was as normal as you could get. When she stood up and introduced the song as something she'd like to sing for her boyfriend, Quinn started to get uneasy. When the first few notes started playing the blonde's heart fell even further.

The song was so tender, so heartfelt, like usual Rachel put her all in her performing. Quinn just couldn't help but wish she wasn't quite so passionate this time. When all of the other girls started singing background and swaying, the cheerio knew she had to join in, even if her spirit was busy cracking. She'd never felt so bad in her life, topping even the act of giving birth. At least then she'd had some pain killers. She didn't even bother hiding her feelings, chances were the rest of the club would just think she was mourning over the official loss of Finn anyways.

Why is it that the people you love the most, always seem to hurt you the worst? That statement might be a little over dramatic, and in the grand scheme of things who was she to make such an accusation. But at that current moment in time, watching that tear roll down Rachel's face as she sang, Quinn was completely sure that there had never been a truer statement.


End file.
